Former CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde: Former Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde on Friday advocated the use of Sanskrit in the court, including making it the official language of the country. He said that according to the news published in the newspapers in 1949, Dr. BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution, had also proposed this.
Justice Sharad Bobde said that as per the law, Hindi and English are used as official languages in the courts, while every chief justice receives representations seeking approval of the respective regional languages. These are now used in district level courts and some high courts. Bobde was addressing the All India Students Conference organized by Sanskrit Bharati.
The issue is unresolved since 1949
He said that the official language at the High Court level is English, although many High Courts have to accept applications, petitions and even documents in regional languages. Bobde said, “I don’t think this issue should remain unresolved. It has been unresolved since 1949. There is a great danger of communication gap in governance and administration of justice, although this is not the place to discuss it.”
‘Doctor. Ambedkar took the initiative to make it an official language.
Bobde said, “On September 11, 1949, there was news in the newspapers that Dr. Ambedkar had taken the initiative to make Sanskrit the official language of the Union of India. The vocabulary of Sanskrit is common in many of our languages. I ask myself this question that Why can’t Sanskrit be made an official language, as proposed by Dr Ambedkar?”
The former Chief Justice said that making Sanskrit an official language has nothing to do with any religion, because 95 percent of the language has nothing to do with any religion but philosophy, law, science, literature, sculpture, astronomy etc.
it is fully capable of secular
He said, “This (Sanskrit) language is not of South or North India and it is fully capable of secular use. A NASA scientist found it suitable for computers, who have ‘describing knowledge in Sanskrit and artificial intelligence’. Wrote a research paper on the subject. He also said that it can be used to communicate the message in as few words as possible.”
‘Six percent speak English’
Citing a survey, Bobde said that 43.63 per cent citizens speak Hindi, while only six per cent speak English, which is spoken by only three per cent people in rural areas. He said that 41 percent of the rich people speak English, while the number of people speaking this language among the poor is only two percent. Bobde said that Sanskrit is probably the only language that can co-exist with our regional languages, 22 of which are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Sanskrit words up to 60-70 percent
The former CJI said, “I am saying this after consulting language experts, who agree that Indians use many Sanskrit words while communicating with each other in regional languages. Each regional language including Urdu The language has words of Sanskrit origin. Languages such as Assamese, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada contain up to 60-70 percent of Sanskrit words.”
However, Bobde admitted that adoption of Sanskrit language is not possible overnight and may take many years. He said, “This language has to be taught in such a way that it does not have any religious implications. The way English is taught in professional courses. A vocabulary has to be made and this language has to be added to the Official Language Act.”
